William Brittelle

Brooklyn-based composer William Brittelle assembles genre-fluid collages that draw on modern classical, electro-acoustic, art rock, and additional idioms. He serves as co-founder and artistic director of the respected contemporary-classical imprint New Amsterdam Records and of the curatorial collective Infinite Palette. His song cycles, among them the 2019 release Spiritual America, function as surreal and poignant meditations that fuse dissonant guitars, lush orchestral arrangements, and electronic textures.

Brittelle grew up in rural North Carolina and enrolled at Vanderbilt University, where academic restrictions on artistic expression contributed to a breakdown. He subsequently studied in New York under composer David Del Tredici and received guidance from Richard Lloyd of Television. He led a post-punk band and held a position at the historic Lower East Side rock venue Sin-é before a serious vocal injury prompted his return to composition. In 2008 he established New Amsterdam Records alongside Sarah Kirkland Snider and Judd Greenstein. That same year saw the appearance of his debut album, the intense art-pop song cycle Mohair Time Warp. Two years afterward he issued the more accessible full-length Television Landscape, which earned commendation from the New York Times and Time Out New York. The largely instrumental Loving the Chambered Nautilus, performed by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble together with Nadia Sirota and Clarice Jensen, followed in 2012. His composition “Amid the Minotaurs” appeared on vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth’s Grammy-winning 2012 debut album; their sophomore effort, 2015’s Render, contained Brittelle’s “High Done No Why To.” The brief electronic EP Without Chasms surfaced in 2018 and preceded Spiritual America, his first recording for Nonesuch. Incorporating indie rock duo Wye Oak, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and the Metropolis Ensemble, the album juxtaposes Brittelle’s conservative Christian upbringing with his later “agnostic Buddhist” life in Brooklyn.